This does have areas shown in Beneath The Ashes DLC. I, however, never played it (don't particularly care for TR Underworld but I watched BTA on youtube.) so if something is wrong let me know. Thank you xD
I'm might need a lot of Smarties.
Can't catch a Break.
Lara stood in her walk in closet, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She barely recognised herself anymore. Since Alistair's death she had kept herself busy, thinking that would help her grieve. If anything it just made her feel worse, kinda of numb, although by looking at her, you would never know it. Lara had always been good at putting up a facade.
Every time she was in the library she had expected to she him sat behind the desk with his face buried in a book. Every time she was out in the field and needed more of a background on something, she had the automatic reflex to ask Alistair. But she no longer could.
She sighed heavily and changed out of her sweaty clothes that she had fought Steve in, replacing them with her dark green trousers and her black tank top. As she pulled a jacket over her shoulders someone knocked at the door.
"You can come in."
The oak door open without a creak and in stepped Steve as she pulled on her fingerless gloves.
"Winston has gone. He said he's borrowing the Aston." He looked at her for a brief moment. Even when she was sad she was still beautiful.
"Are you alright?" he continued. Lara gave a small nod as she walked towards the medusa carving on the wall. She pulled the two daggers down on either side causing the carving to open up.
"Well that's an elaborate way to hide your guns." said Steve in a failed attempt to make Lara smile. She didn't even make a noise.
As Lara headed for the door, Steve grabbed her arm turning her around to face him.
"You know something. Even if it's linked to something painful, which clearly it is, we need to know everything. Especially if the thing causing the serge is anything like the Tesseract."
He never once let go of her arm as he spoke, making Lara feel oddly safe and comfortable. His tone was firm yet gentle as was his grip on her arm and he looked directly into her eyes.
As Lara turned her gaze to her feet, Steve could feel her begin to shake and hear her breathing heavily. Realising he had hit a nerve he pulled her in close and hugged her.
The tears that had gathered in Lara's eyes began to slide down her face. She could no longer hold them back. With a sob she grasped tightly at Steve's shirt, burying her face into his chest.
The oak door swung open again causing Steve and Lara to pull apart.
"Er...Tony is planning to dig up your house, so you might wanna go downstairs." Clint had an innocent smile on his face. As Lara, once again, sighed and headed back into the main hall, Clint winked at Steve. Steve just rolled his eyes and followed Lara.
Back in the main hall Natasha and Tony were arguing, loudly. Tony was taking refuge behind the computers while Natasha stood opposite with her hands on her hips.
"You don't need to destroy my home Stark." There was a hint of venom in her words, "I would rather not have to rebuild it again."
Natasha was now leaning against the archway entrance to the tech room where as Tony had sat back down not taking his eyes off of Lara.
"Now I would suggest that you, Stark, stay here and keep track of us. Steve, you might want to go put something you can move a lot more freely in." He nodded and jogged towards his room.
Natasha and Clint exchanged confused looks. "What about us Lara?" questioned Natasha.
Lara turned to look at them. "Could you and Mr Barton stay here please? Feel free to help yourself to food and films. I trust that you, Natasha, can keep him in line." she finished with a head jerk to Tony. Natasha chuckled.
"Where are we going? I'm assuming I'm coming with you." asked Thor as Steve had returned wearing his now famous Captain America outfit and clutching his shield.
Lara walked over to the bookcase on the right hand wall of the tech room and flicked a switch on the back. The bookshelf shuddered and then open to reveal a dark passage. She grabbed her backpack from a nearby table and turned on the torch attached to the strap.
"I hope your not afraid of the dark." She threw another torch to Steve.
Lara, Steve and Thor descended down the passage and entered her families crypt. Thor had to duck as he went down the stairs. Flicking the switch on the side of her grandfathers grave, the entire grave began to shake and it slid to the right, revealing another passage beneath.
"Does everyone in your family do everything elaborately?" asked Steve. This time Lara did chuckle.
She led them through the cave, climbing and jumping over gaps in the floor until they arrived in the main chamber. Making short work of the timed door blocking the way to Lara's father's hidden study, Lara lent against the desk feeling uneasy.
"You said you wanted me to tell you what I know. So before we carry on I'll tell you the brief overview."
Steve and Thor exchanged looks.
"When I was nine, myself and my mother were in a plane crash over Nepal. We landed in the Himalayan mountains where I...stumbled upon a portal and a dais. I touched the sword and...well my mother disappeared."
Lara fidgeted uncomfortably.
"My father spent years trying to find out what happened to my mother. He died on a dig in Cambodia, or so we all thought. I began looking for more dais' when I was old enough and found one in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. That lead me on the quest for the shards to Excalibur."
Steve's face crunched up in confusion, as did Thor's. "It's the fabled sword of King Arthur." Clarified Steve not really relieving Thor's confusion.
"Not only did I find that on old friend was alive but that the portal in Bolivia connected to the one when I was nine. Amanda, the old friend, was shouting take out the sword it'll explode if you don't which led to my mothers disappearance."
Lara fidgeted again feeling even more uncomfortable. Steve walked over to her and held her hand trying to get her to continue.
"Let's speed this up. My home was attacked by a doppelgänger of me. She killed Alistair and took the gauntlet that I had found. It was no use to Amanda though. The doppelgänger had been made by a Atlantian goddess named Natla. Natla had been working with Amanda but had her own agenda. She planned to create the seventh age. My father figured that out and she killed him before he had chance to..." She fiddled with her gloves "To stop Natla I had to throw Mjolnir at her and it was lost in the Etir."
A silence spread threw the decrepit study. Thor put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.
"Then you did do it for a good reason." Lara chuckled, took a deep breath and led Steve and Thor deeper into the foundations.
(x-x)
Tony was tinkering with a part of his suit whilst Clint was watching Tv. Natasha was the only one keep track of Lara, Steve and Thor signals. Silence filled the room only to be punctuated by the loud cackles coming from Clint.
There was a loud knock at the main door.
"Natasha go open the door." said Tony not looking up. Natasha slowly turned to face him.
"I might have red hair but I'm not Potts. Open it yourself."
Tony sighed and stuck his tongue out at Natasha as the knocking continued.
He made sure to make as much noise as possible as he walked to the door which only succeeded in annoying Clint.
"Hel...Didn't know you were into old building's Tony?"
A man with deep brown hair stood holding one bag over his shoulder and another by his side. The man's grey jacket covered his trademark purple shirt.
"Nice of you to join us Bruce. Welcome to Lara Croft's home of silence and awkwardness." replied Tony letting Bruce in.
"What?" asked Bruce putting his bags at the side of the sofa.
"He wanted to dig up Lara's home to find the source of the surge. For obvious reasons, myself and Lara had an issue with that."
Natasha didn't look up once but was focused on the screen. The blips on the screen, representing the group in the crypt, began to flicker.
"Erm Tony we're losing contact with them." Natasha began to panic and tap away on the computer trying to get the signal back.
"They're underground what do you expect."
But it wasn't the miles of brick and mortar between them that was blocking the signal. As Natasha's fears went unheard by Tony and Clint, Bruce sat beside her and tried to help. That was not the only activity at Croft manor.
(x-x)
"Where are we now?" asked Steve looking at the intricately carved walls.
"Deep in the foundations. My father hid another artefact down here. One that can create and control thralls. I'm guessing that may be the source of energy surge given there is Etir down here so be careful where you step." answered Lara whilst she continued to walk on wanting to get out as fast as she could.
She led them into a circular room which, in the centre, had a pedestal still holding that very artefact.
"Hmm. This indeed could be the source but only if the Cord of Air has been activated. Only then will this give off a signal." Thor picked up the artefact and put it in pocket hidden in his cape.
"The Suum Aantah." said Lara dryly causing Thor to turn around, his eyes thin.
"It's been found, hasn't it?"
Another earth shaking bang rocked the very foundations they were in.
"Ok, that was an explosion." stated Steve.
As they made their way back upstairs, the ceiling began to crumble unleashing more of the Etir, but that wasn't the only thing let loose.
A mighty roar echoed through the decaying corridors freezing the group to the spot. Without warning the wall to the right smashed open bringing down more of the ceiling separating Thor from Steve and Lara.
"Go back! I will deal with this beast." Thor shouted through the blocked corridor. Lara didn't listen and began to pull away what she could.
"Come on. Thor can take care of himself." She still didn't listen forcing Steve to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder.
Eventually Lara fought her way out of Steve's grip, annoyed that they had left Thor behind. Noticing that Lara's eyes were filling with tears again, Steve gently grabbed her head forcing her to look in his crystal blue eyes.
"He'll be fine so don't go blaming yourself. If it helps we can talk when we get out of here." He was stern yet considerate but her emotions were building to a boiling point.
"If he dies..." she was cut off by the growl, several growls, of glowing blue corpses.
The thralls charged both Steve and Lara who reacted with lightning fast speed. Steve threw his shield at the centre of the thrall congregation causing it to ricochet between them. Lara took this opportunity to execute some of the thralls thinning the herd.
Steve reclaimed his shield and dragged Lara away who was still letting loose upon the thralls.
Lara's agility matched that of Steve's as they clambered there way back up to the entrance to the crypt. Steve suddenly pinned Lara to the wall putting his hand over his mouth.
"Listen."
They could hear fighting above them. Fearing that more people were going to get hurt because of her choices, Lara fought out of Steve's grasp and sprinted into the main hall ready for a fight.